IHOP Girl: Never Ask For Want You Don't Really Want

Friday, September 30, 2005

Never Ask For Want You Don't Really Want

This is a narrative regarding an event that took place Monday night. As a precursor, and disclaimer I will remind you to watch what you wish for. Now on to the story.

It was Monday night around 8pm, and I was headed home from lab (lab had been moved from Friday to Monday this week). As I neared the apt. Kelli and Ashley were so excited and told me to look into out living room window. Ahh, yes, our Halloween tree was put up, and stood light with black and orange. It was all very exciting, and so the neighboring boys (who Kelli and Ashley party with) came to see it, and scoff at a tree in November. Anyway, I was standing inside and Kelli was leaning on our open door letting mosquitoes inside (we have really bad mosquitoes). Thus, I asked Kelli if she wouldn't mind shutting the door. Kelli went to shut the door with her backside and slammed her face into our TV which sits directly in front of the door, but facing the side wall. At first we all gasped, but Kelli was laughing and saying that it didn't hurt, she was ok. The next thing we knew, Kelli has blood running down her face, and we all run to the bathroom to get toilet paper to stop the bleeding. A minute later we looked at the cut, and she had gashed open below her right eye, about a half-inch cut that looked pretty deep. Ashley freaks out and calls her dad, while Kelli is trying to get a hold of her mom. We decide that Kelli needs stitches and so we head to the hospital. One our way Kelli's mom calls and we learn that Kelli is not under their insurance any more. So, we head home to wait and see if Kelli could just go to the campus med. Center tomorrow since the bleeding had slowed. Later on that night Kelli talked it over with her mom, and just decided to go to the ER to get stitches. It was crazy! Anyway, Kelli ended up with four stitches and a big black eye. Fortunately she's fine, but I learned my lesson don't ever say that your life is boring unless you are ready to face what may happen. Wow, it amazes me what can happen. We all got a pretty good laugh out of it anyway!

Well, that's all for now! I'll post more later!

1 comment:

Jess said...: Oh my goodness! Poor Kelli! That SO sounds like something I would do. I bruised the top of my right index finger the other day when something heavy fell out of the freezer as I opened the door...yeah. Lovely. Never realised how much I use that part of me! And isn't that just the dorkiest way to injure oneself? Mother started laughing at me when I told her what happened, and I don't blame her. LOL! Well, my dear, I hope you are having a safe and happy VERY EARLY holiday season. You're really in college in Australia, aren't you? And you just didn't tell me. They had their Chrissie a while back and are now (I think) approaching the middle of spring. Sigh...and you didn't invite me to come to Oz with you. Muchacha mala! LOL! Well, must run. I have homework to do and as usual, I am putting it off. Te amo, mi chica! Later...!; 10:00 AM

Movie Night In...I love a good movie!

Mega Mind
Taking Chance (Will make you cry like a baby)
Charlotte Grey (A bit of a different take on Nazi Germany)
Series - Merlin (I LOVE BBC)
Robin Hood (Okay, a love Russell Crowe, you'll have to understand that about me...)
Kingdom of Heaven (Chuck full of acting power with an epic tale)
Miss Potter (Such a great film! Story of the creator of Peter Rabbit)
How to Train your Dragon (Possibly my favorite animated movie ever...I'm like a little kid, I watch it over and over)
Buck (Sundance winner, Biography of Horse Trainer, heart touching)
Lost in Austin (Modern day spin on Pride and Prej.)

Life as a nurse...

Great words by Reb Jeff: Vayishlach: Facing Death

"Rachel died. She was buried on the road to Ephrat — now called Bethlehem. Jacob set up a pillar above her grave. It is the pillar at Rachel’s grave to this day."–Genesis 35:19-20

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidui http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva_(Judaism), and preparing the notifications to the community, feel like little fragments of the sacred. I have been entrusted with the care and tending of the most powerful, complex and difficult emotions that a person can experience in life. I have been made, in some small part, a guardian of the memory of a departed soul — a life that touches upon many other lives.After dropping off my older daughter at her high school this morning, I made a stop at Treasure Coast Hospice http://www.tchospice.org/, a remarkable organization that sets a very high standard for the loving and respectful care of the dying. There, I visited a lovely man whom I have seen a few times in his hospice room. I sat by his bedside and listened to him (in full possession of his faculties) as he told me about his worries about his family, the support of his wife after he is gone, and the future of his children and grandchildren. I was deeply moved by the way he put any concern for himself — even while facing death — in a distant backseat to his concerns for his family. When my own time comes, I can only hope to have his awareness of the way that one life can touch so many others.Also at hospice, I visited a woman I have known for the past two years — a dear soul who is a former Jewish religious school director. I sat with her, too, singing psalms to her as I listened to her heavy and labored breathing. I have no medical training, but I have come to know the sound of a person who is close to death. The body begins to fight for each breath as it slowly looses it grasp on life. As I held her hand and sang, I realized that being a rabbi is no protection against becoming one of the people caught in the web of connection. I, too, am changed by the loss of a life that has touched mine.Later in the day, I met with a couple from our congregation. She had just learned that her brother died yesterday in a car crash. Coming to terms with the loss is made more difficult for her by the fact that she and her brother had not seen each other or spoken in five years. Sometimes, people think it is easier to mourn the death of someone who has moved out of your life. In my experience, though, it's harder. Grief is magnified by wounded love and regret. I have no magic words to say to ease the pain of mourning. All I can do is listen, become a vessel in which people place their stories, and offer compassion.Actually, there is one more thing I can do. I can have faith that "all I can do" is all that I need to do. It is enough.In this week's Torah portion (Vayishlach) Jacob watched Rachel, the love of his life, die in childbirth. He was overcome by grief. Jacob had worked for his cruel uncle Laban for fourteen years to earn the right to marry Rachel. Now she was gone. Because she died while they were traveling, Jacob had to bury her by the side of the road. He built a pillar of stones on the spot to mark the place as sacred.This is what we all do, in one way or another, when death enters our lives. We grieve and our hearts break. We wish that we could continue to walk along the path of life with our loved ones forever, but the dead cannot fully join us. We have to leave something behind in order to resume our own journey. So, what do we do? We mark the moment as sacred. We erect monuments — both in cemeteries and in our hearts. The stones we place on top of stones remind us that a life may end, but its sanctity is forever.The Torah says that the monument Jacob built for his beloved continues to stand until this day. A life that touches the lives of others never ceases to send living reverberations throughout the web that binds us all.